I was all set to write up a quick post about this train that woke both of us up at 4 a.m. Just this huge crashing sound that I swore could have been nothing short of a train derailing in our backyard. Our house shook.
We live with train tracks in our backyard and the trains themselves rarely, if ever, wake us up anymore.
This one did. And we were a bit freaked out. We did get out of bed and look out the front and back windows.
We saw nothing. So we went back to bed.
This morning, I began the mental process of formulating the post about the impossibly loud train when I checked my e-mail and saw a news alert from the Chicago Tribune with the headline "Earthquake strikes Illinois."
No way.
I clicked through and it turns out there was a 4.3-mag earthquake with its epicenter in Sycamore, Illinois.
In case you'd like a little context...
The yellow pin is us. The red pin is Sycamore, about 20-25 miles west.
That certainly explains a lot.
What did Katie say after I told her what happened? "Maybe we shouldn't have pictures hanging above our bed."
Heh heh.
The saddest thing is that I'm actually a little excited about this. I've always wanted to be in an earthquake. Every time we visit California, I hope for one. This is the first earthquake I remember being in although my mom will say that I was in a small temblor while living in Lexington, KY, in the early 80s. Don't really remember it, though.
[morbid] Coolness.
